The two-disc edition of McCartney includes the original album on disc one and about twenty-five minutes of bonus tracks on disc two. The album itself has clearly benefited from the remastering when compared to the original CD, with crisper highs and a deeper bass end. Several of these songs appeared on the 2001 Wingspan: Hits and History compilation; the sonic upgrade is less apparent in those cases.
The bonus material is geared more towards completists. The biggest disappointment is the full version of “Suicide,” which is heard on the album as a very short excerpt. It’s a strong song (offered to, and declined by, Frank Sinatra), but this is an off-handed run through rather than a releasable version. “Don’t Cry Baby” is just an instrumental mix of “Oo You,” but still interesting. “Women Kind” is a silly demo that doesn’t really inspired repeated listening.
The live tracks include a version of “Maybe I’m Amazed” from 1974’s One Hand Clapping video (found on the Archive Collection reissue of Band on the Run) and three album tracks performed during Wings’ 1979 tour. The 1979 tour is one of McCartney’s most overlooked. It was his last tour to date that featured a set list dominated by solo material, as opposed to the Beatles-heavy sets he’s been doing for the past twenty years. These live tracks come from the December 17, 1979 Glasgow concert, which has been heavily bootlegged over the years. It’s disappointing that McCartney has chosen to piecemeal these tracks instead of releasing them together as a full-length live album.
As with the McCartney II (Archive Collection) reissue, McCartney is available as a deluxe edition that includes both CDs, a DVD, and a hardcover book. The DVD features a short featurette about the making of the album, home movie footage of the McCartney family at the beach, a music video for “Maybe I’m Amazed,” and a few live performances. Most interesting among the live footage are the two songs taken from the Concert for the People of Kampuchea 1979 benefit show.
Article comments
1 - Thiefinni
"John Lennon never matched the focus of his 1970 Plastic Ono Band (though he sadly had far less time than the others to try)."
Well he had over ten years... and look what the Beatles achieved in ten years.
2 - The Other Chad
Over ten years? Not really, pretty much exactly ten years.
My point was, Harrison and McCartney had decades to improve on their '70s releases. "Cloud Nine" and "Brainwashed" are among Harrison's best albums. "Tug of War" and "Chaos and Creation" are among McCartney's best.
Who knows what Lennon might have come up with had he lived past 1980. As it is, I don't think any of his albums came close to equally "Plastic Ono Band."